Econoblog
Prohibitive premiums are a driving ban under another name
Without wishing to be uncharitable, it is impossible not to experience mixed feelings about “boy racers” being forced off the roads because of the soaring cost of car insurance. They are, after all, the most dangerous of the nuts behind the wheel on our roads. Every time I see a 1993 Corsa with a execrescent [...]
By Sean O'Grady | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Monday, 19 July 2010 at 1:18 pm
After Goldman’s payout, will RBS make a claim?
Now Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550m to settle fraud allegations levelled by the Securities & Exchange Commission in the US the law suits are sure to follow.
That raises questions for RBS, which lost $800m or so of our money through its involvement in the dodgy mortgage backed security peddled by Goldman Sachs that [...]
By James Moore | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Friday, 16 July 2010 at 3:58 pm
Too late for BP, too little for Goldman Sachs
The positive news yesterday from BP on capping the oil spill is not too little too late for the company, but it is too late for sure. The BP scandal was so big – whatever the rights and wrongs of it – that it is one of those corporate disasters that will live on for [...]
By Sean O'Grady | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Friday, 16 July 2010 at 12:38 pm
If you’ve got a ‘proper’ job, hang on to it
Unemployment is down. Good news, of course. But there’s always a cloud attached to a silver lining. An astonishing1.5 million of us are actually officially in jobs we don’t want, temping while we look for something better; a version, I would say, of hidden unemployment. Chances are they are also in work way below their qualifications, let [...]
By Sean O'Grady | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Wednesday, 14 July 2010 at 12:33 pm
A fair kicking for auditors?
Bill Michael, head of UK financial services at KPMG, is a combative fellow. After a dig at the England football team (he’s an Aussie) we’re into a lengthy defence of auditors before an audience of bankers at the British Bankers’ Association’s annual conference.
He’s never seen his colleagues suspend their scepticism when it comes to their [...]
By James Moore | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Tuesday, 13 July 2010 at 2:37 pm
Bankers get their old confidence back
Phew, thank goodness for those budget deficits, eh. It means we weren’t the only ones to make a godawful mess of the economy. The politicians have also been screwing things up. It wasn’t all our fault after all. That, at least, appears to be the message from the British Bankers Association’s annual shindig in the City of London today.
By James Moore | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Tuesday, 13 July 2010 at 11:40 am
OBR looks like damaged goods after Budd’s departure
The loss of Alan Budd from the OBR is a big deal and looks directly related to the stunt they made him do after press leaks about public sector job cuts – an immediate rebuttal, which made the OBR look like an arm of the Tory spin machine.
George Osborne panicked and Budd doesn’t like [...]
By Sean O'Grady | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Tuesday, 6 July 2010 at 12:56 pm
The housing outlook isn’t good
Oh dear.
If you track house prices and mortgage approvals figures since 1994 you see a very close correlation; as you’d expect, the one clearly driving the other in an instantly comprehensible way. But since last year the relationship has completely broken down, and last year’s mini-boom in prices went way ahead of what was happening [...]
By Sean O'Grady | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Tuesday, 29 June 2010 at 12:13 pm
BIS annual report is frightening reading
The BIS report is long, very long, and very frightening. You may not take much notice of them, but the Bank for International Settlements is the club of central bankers – the equivalents of Mervyn King round the world. You should pay attention, as they sit in the engine room of the world’s financial system. [...]
By Sean O'Grady | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Monday, 28 June 2010 at 4:02 pm
Cameron makes a good start on the world economic stage
David Cameron appears to be carrying all before him. He has, in essence, got the G8 and G20 to agree with his agenda for fiscal conservatism. The Europeans like him and apparently respect what he is doing, even after the little row over the European Peoples Party; trivial indeed when set against the big challenges [...]
By Sean O'Grady | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Monday, 28 June 2010 at 2:15 pm
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